Gods and Demons
by OfficialWeedTesterGuy
Summary: A human and his Sangheili partner come to terms with their pasts.


_New New Alexandria, Eposz, Planet Reach_

_May 15, 2589_

_37 years since the Treaty of 2552_

"_We have come to a place far from home. Time long passed since we have seen the sun rise. A place where peace can finally come.A place where we can rest and laugh and sing and love once more."_

He paused, closing his eyes as a single tear slid across his cheek. He closed his battered copy of _A Soldier's Tale: Rainforest Wars, _pocketing it.

"Goodbye, Dad."

Dave Hammond sighed, thinking about his father, and the men who served alongside him during the glassing of Reach all those years ago right here, in what used to be the crown jewel of the UNSC. His father's remains were never officially found, but he got turned into glass along an entire city, so there was really nothing to grieve about left. Another gut punch to his family when his father's death was reported. His mother had never been in the picture, so between his father and grandparents, that had been all the family he had known.

But he was not the only one who had come to grieve today, for another side of the story had to be told.

Shexa'Zokam, his comrade and now wife, had lost people here too. Her mandibles flexed as she watched her husband silently remember those he had lost.

"Are you angry at me?" She finally asked, her voice tinted with that of concern and worry.

"No." He said. "Why would I be? You came all the way out here with me to support me, honey."

She grunted. "No, I meant-urgh!" She waved a hand at the city in front of them.

"I meant that the fact my ancestors turned this planet, and your father, into glass. My father was here, too. Flying in one of those gods-damned ships, blindly following the order of the Prophets!"

She could not stress this more. Her traditional gown ruffled in the wind as she put her hands on her chest, growing slightly enraged. Not at her mate-never. Not at him, but the sick circumstances which had killed many members of their respective families. She was glad her clan, and hers keep had accepted him, but it was something that had nagged at the back of their minds for years.

He shook his head. "Shek," he said, using that "nickname" for her that she liked, "When have I ever gotten angry at you for what your ancestors did? I love you, you love me, and we've done so much together as a couple. I...fuck."

He pulled at his hair, before turning around to look her in her eye.

"You father's ship was destroyed, right."

"Right." She said solemnly.

"And _who _exactly blew up his ship?"

"A demon." She was referring to a team of Spartan-IIs who had planted a bomb in the hangar of the Corvette her father served on, a ground soldier waiting to depart.

"And you don't hate humans, do you?" He smirked.

She shook her head. Her choice of marriage had long proved that. "No. You humans have done much for our kind after the war. You have taught us how to innovate again, to not rely on the Prophets to do the thinking for us. Engineering, farming, learning for ourselves! I never thought I would say this, but I was grateful a _doctor _of all things when I was wounded? Remember that?"

Dave nodded fervently as he remembered how they met; fighting rebels on Sunaion, and she had been wounded by a Fuel Rod Cannon. He was the lone human medic assigned to her team; her fight to refuse treatment had ended with a little speech from Dave about how her death would not benefit her clan in any way; living on would. She agreed, and years later, here they were.

"No. I suppose I don't." She turned to him. "What is your point?"

"I...I know it'd been hard for you. Your family, me, everything…" He put a hand on her shoulder. "I know it's been hard coming to terms with what your ancestors did. But that's not _you_, Shek. You people aren't ruled by the Prophets anymore. You're _free_."

She looked down, staring at the ground as if it were staring back. He was right, she knew. She had witnessed the many wars, the shedding of blood in her keep, over the supposed holy words of the Great Journey. She was only a small girl then, not for a warrior to worry about. She escaped easily, running and running until she could no more. It was then that a farmer of Zoxam keep found her, and took her in.

The kaidon accepted her in, renaming her Shexa of Zoxam, her former name of M'dama forgotten. She trained as a warrior, fought in the Home Guard against enemy, her namesake now a cursed name among the Swords of Sanghelios. She kept her secret well, only tearfully revealing it to Dave after a night of drinking. The moment after she told him of her descent, how she had killed many with her blood on the even though Zoxam was her family, she shuddered to think what would have happened if she never ran away. Killing her own kind, in the name of the false Prophets?

Never.

So when he hugged her, and told her that everything would be alright, that she was still a good person. He didn't care about her past, her old family-he cared about _her. _

She meant something to _someone._

A year and a half to that day, they were married. She donned her armor with a UNSC patch to honor her new mate's 'clan', and wore it with pride. She never had the honor of meeting his parents-his family, like hers, was devastated by the war. He was officially welcomed into her clan's Keep, his deeds in battle placed amongst family history. Like her, he was finally at home.

"Free." She chuckled at the word. It had an...appeal to it. A promise first given to her people thousands of years ago after the War of Beginnings, when her people joined the Covenant, to fulfill a promise never kept. Humans had fought for it too, but under different circumstances. She had read on Daves' 'America' and human history. Funny how two different species could have so much infighting.

But now, thanks to humanity, her people were free.

And perhaps one day, her people could return the favor.

She nodded, her fingers tapping as she looked over at him. "I...I'm sorry. I just thought that if I told you that I were to remember my father today, you would be offended."

Dave shook his head. "No hon, I wouldn't. Nd do you know why?"

She smiled. "I assume that, as your people say, let bygones be bygones?"

He smirked. "Something like that. You remember your father not because of what he did, but how he was brainwashed and leashed like dogs, like the other members of the Covenant. And you're right, Shek. Our kind, together, has accomplished _so _much in the past few decades. We've helped each other rebuild, reforge our civilizations, and become a power _truly _worth joining."

So she got down on one kneww, overlooking the city, and spoke to herself. Dave recognized it as a Sangheili battle prayer, one taught from a young age to remember fallen in combat. His Sangheili was decent at best, but as his wife spoke those words with pride, with a great weight off her shoulders, he knew from that day on, truly, that former enemies like his kind and hers, could stand together as one.


End file.
